The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-09-03
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
MRS. JOHN s. ARMSTRONG.
Concluded

oUve.
ooM0 70 CHURCH tNpxR piryIcuLrIu.
ne privileges Of religious exercises OF
going 10 church In those very carly days.
we're exceedingly seant and far between.
John g., her worthy husband, was not
strictly speaking . ssalous church gosr; in
fas., he seldom went, but was ever willing
10 do the fair thing BY the ministers. Ps
was like his uncle, John Strawn, at La,,on,
who, when strongly importuned to attend
divine service one Sabbath, to het, popu.
lar young preacher, responded, IS if 1t were
o log raising .r putting up barn: "lll
either 90 myeclf, or send a hand Mrs A.
while living with her parents, to go to
church mad to ride seven miles on horseback
from her fathers, Ambrose Trumbo's, to
Mr.. Campbell's in South Ottawa; but, as she
was young and active and had a good horse,
q spirited animal which allowed no other
nag to pass her on the road, she enjoyed her
trips and seldom wished the distance shorter.
Rev. Mr.. Royal, known TO the early settlers
from IIcnnepin AMI Magnolia to the hanka-
kee river On the south side Of the Illinois
river, a1d almost equally ~ well acquainted
on the north side, was the minister who Off.
caied. He Travelled on horseback from
settlement TO settlement, aiming to yigt cacA
neightorhoad al stated times. AMI never
varying except where his services were re.
ouired n, a funeral, or when stopped by high
water The young folks who medllatcd mat
rimony. ana thought it uniigHihed to be
married by esquire made their arrange
ments with reference to the good preacher 5
movements. But he was never sure to meet
his appointments to day or two, or even
more, for in those times there were no public
highways, and no pre,ense of bridges until
after number of years from the first set
dement's, SO that during times of high water,
in the spring ana fall especially, the minis.
ter needed boat as often as horse to make
his journeys.
BRIDGES, sLOUGHs, ETC.
There were no bridges across any Of the
streams, till about 1885 or 1886. and then
only the larger ones, such as Sandy Creek
and Clear Creek, in what is now Marshall or
Putnam counties; the Vermillion, Hoges,
Armstrong;, and Newport's Runs. and Ma
con river, all then In LaSalle county, Young
settlers born here within twenty-five or
thirty years, and others who have immi.
grated hither within that time have but the
fA:ntest conception Of the prairies Of Illinois.
They sbounded in sloughs, small lakes Of
various depths, from IA inches to as many
feet, and from few rods 10 half a mile in
width, and running in a chain or series, one
connected with another for five, ten or fl
teen miles, leading into some timbered sec.
ton, forming the head Of ravine, and feed
ing creek which, in high water, was no
SLOUGH of stream but often torrent, surg
ing, raging, roaring nnd spreading from
bluff to bluff, carrying fences, small bridges,
and undermining and bearing trees away to
"the brnming river These prairie sloughs
we're nuisance to the early settler. BE.
sides being the most extensive and prolific
laboratories possible for ugue and malaria In
early spring and late in the fall. their mar
gins Of rich soil produced the first and last
sweet grass Of the season, and the cattle
psstured around and in those
Whenever the farmer missed Q
weakling. or little calf, he rarely failed to
find II mired In some Of these swsmps.
HOW HE KEPT STORE.
When Mrs. A. moved 10 her new home at
Mission Point, il became necessary for her
to dad store to barter her eggs. butter and
maple sugar, Of which she yearly made from
ono hundred 10 four hundred or i've hun.
drsd pounds, from hne sugar bush" on
The creek near her dwelling, for tes, coffee.
calico and jeans. thread, needles, hooks and
eyes, etc., and she found such An institution
u Hollenbeck's Grove, now Newark. Mr..
II. kept his store In small log house on the
prairie, while no lived in another but less
pseten,ious one 10 the woods He would
look Up his emporium Of merchandise"
when there we're NO customers in sight. and
plow. or hoe. or reap, or NOV, or whatever
N Industrious farmer ought to do. By the
side Of the store door hung . huge coneh
shell. A customer on arriving and find
ing the premises locked, seized tho shell and |
blew Il, 70 which the good nS,ursd merchant
would respond with yell something like
N Indian war whoop, and dropping his hoe.
or rake, would "stresk It" for the "empor.
ium." He kept little Of everything, from
, cambria needle 10 . grindstone, and WAS
very accommodating and honest in all his
dealings.
[Beversl most provoking errors occurred
in "se,ting up the copy Of our article Of
last week relative to Mrs. J. s. Armstrong.
Her fathers name WAS abraham, not Am.
brose. The intelligent printer transformed
back logs into beech logs, and he skipped en-.
tirely tina: portion Of the manuscript which
spoke Of Fannie, the youngest daughter of